Number of National Merit semifinalists in Midland County drops from 5 to 1

Midland Reporter-Telegram

Published 11:32 am, Wednesday, September 9, 2015

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Number of National Merit semifinalists in Midland County drops from 5 to 1

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Editor’s Note: The Reporter-Telegram will profile the lone semifinalist in a future edition.

The National Merit Scholarship Program named one Midland County student as a semifinalist, the fewest honorees in the county since 2012.

Alexa N. Mamoulides of Lee High School was announced Wednesday to be among about 16,000 semifinalists nationwide.

Last year, there were five from Midland County (two from Midland ISD, two from Trinity School and one from Greenwood ISD). Three Midland ISD and one Greenwood ISD semifinalists were named in 2013. No students in Midland were selected in 2012, according to Reporter-Telegram archives.

From 2002-06, an average of 10 students from Midland County earned semifinalist status. Over the past eight years, the average has been 2.75.

Neither Odessa nor San Angelo have a National Merit semifinalist this year. There are five in Abilene and Lubbock, four in Amarillo, seven in El Paso and one in Marfa.

About 1.5 million juniors began the 2016 program by taking the 2014 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, according to the announcement. The selected semifinalists, who represent less than 1 percent of U.S. seniors, include the highest-scoring entrants in each state, and the number of students selected is proportional to the state’s percentage of the graduating seniors nationwide.

Better than 93 percent of semifinalists are expected to attain finalist standing when they are announced in February.